District 5 Diary

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Bike guy: "Wake up or get out of our way"

Morgan Fitzgibbons of the Wigg Party has some advice for those of us who doubt the wisdom of taking away a traffic lane and/or street parking on Fell and Oak Streets to make bike lanes: get out of his way. From his comment to a recent Bay City article on the issue:

"...The reality is that we have two very wide streets, and there is plenty of room for all modes of transportation along this corridor. If you are so concerned about moving 67,000 cars through this section every day, then you need to also be concerned about the thousands and thousands of cyclists who move through here every day (a number that would surely sky-rocket if any semblance of safe bike infrastructure were installed).

If you are truly concerned about this corridor being needed to move these people through, then the obvious answer is to take out the parking. If you balk at taking out parking then you are a hypocrite---why is it ok for sitting cars to impede this flow but not moving cyclists? This attitude is clearly a result of clinging to the status quo and not recognizing the absolutely essential nature of the bicycle in our city's transit plan of the future."

And that's really the big point here. I wish that we lived in a world with infinite resources and a teflon climate. I wish we could act however we wanted and not completely undermine our happiness and well-being through the destruction of our life-systems, including a stable climate. Unfortunately, that's not the case. We have to get people off fossil fuels in order to avert climate change, and people are going to be forced off fossil fuels as the price of oil continues to climb."

Those of us who are actually paying attention would appreciate it if the rest of you would either wake up and join us or just get out of our way. While you warn of the process being hijacked by a few special interests, we already know what it's like to experience that. It's very sad that a few noisy people who are totally out in left field can pipe up to block much needed progress in this city. We aren't going to let that happen this time. This city needs these bike lanes. You can thank us in 5 years when you can't afford to drive anymore." (emphasis added)